INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

BRINGING THE WORLD THE LATEST IN OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS NEWS

TELXIUS HITS 160Tbps | ADVA’S RAIL DEMO | INPHI BUYS ESILICON

2019 - 2020Special Edition

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TRAINING A WORKFORCEFor a fibre future | p18

THE VIEW FROM:Broadband Forum | p20

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CONTENTS

It is said that to understand the future, one must first understand the past. With this in mind, Optical Connections’ Industry Focus Special takes a look at some of the highlights of 2019, and with the help of the latest analysts’ reports, a glimpse at how the fibre optics industry might develop in the future.

Let’s face it, 2019 was a very good year for the industry. Consolidation is usually a sign of a maturing ecosystem and there were some major M&A’s in the last 12 months. Not the least of these was II-VI’s acquisition of Finisar for around US$3.2 billion, completed in September. The combined company is looking to become market leader in differentiated materials and devices such as those based on gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, gallium nitride and silicon carbide. Also in the news was Cisco’s acquisition of Acacia, made in an attempt to take a share in the rapidly-growing coherent optical interconnect market as it moves from rack-based to pluggable components.

2019 was also a good year for new products, some of which, such as Infinera’s XR Optics, could have a massive impact on access network architecture in the future. FTTH rollout could also revolutionise in terms of speed and cost using Sterlite Tech’s FTTH Mantra end-to-end solution. Indeed, FTTH rollouts increased massively in the last 12 months and in the Industry Focus section, we take a look at the latest available numbers and initiatives.

Last year was also one of massive innovation, from controlling the speed of light and indeed, sending it backwards, to promising advances in quantum which could revolutionise the fibre optic networks of the future. Industry Focus takes a look at these developments and more in this special section of the magazine. Last but certainly not least is a roundup of the latest predictions from leading analyst companies looking at where the markets are likely to go in 2020 and beyond.

In addition to Industry Focus, this digital-only issue has the usual features including the latest news and products as well as features on training a workforce for a fibre future and an in-depth interview with the Broadband Forum’s CEO Robin Mersh and CMO Geoff Burke about the organisation’s current work and its roadmap for 2020. To cap it all off, we take a look back at the most successful and well-attended ECOC Conference and Expo to date, featuring fascinating video interviews some of the industry’s major players.

Everyone on the Optical Connections and ECOC Expo teams would like to wish all our readers, supporters and advertisers a very happy and prosperous 2020. We look forward to meeting up and doing business with you all in the next 12 months. And don’t forget to mark 21st – 23rd September in your calendar, when ECOC 2020 will take place at the Brussels Expo venue.

Peter DykesContributing Editor, Optical Connections

A GOOD YEAR BEHIND US, AN EVEN BETTER ONE TO COME

4 Industry News

6 Industry FocusM&As

8 Industry FocusTop Products

11 Industry Focus 2019: A Year of Innovation

14 Industry Focus FTTH Rollout

16 Industry Focus Outlook 2020

18 Peter Dykes Training

20 View from: Broadband Forum

22 FREMCO Promotional Feature

23 ECOC2019

27 Broadband Forum World 2019

28 Product News

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Telxius’ BRUSA submarine cable has successfully reached record 550 Gbps single-wavelength channel speeds during an advanced trial featuring Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) coherent optical solution. In addition, a commercially deployable solution was verified for a total capacity of more than 20 Tbps on a single fibre pair.

With WL5e, the BRUSA cable is now able to reach a total transmission capacity of more than 160 Tbps. According to Ciena, the record-breaking trial has demonstrated how the BRUSA network can prepare for increasing connectivity demands from telecom operators, OTT services and other requirements driven

by high-bandwidth applications.

BRUSA is the highest capacity submarine cable connecting the Americas. It was opened for business in August 2018 and stretches approximately 10,200 km between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Virginia Beach, USA. BRUSA enables ultra-high broadband services, improves communication reliability and overall network performance, and provides direct access to internet exchanges in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

The BRUSA network trial was powered by Ciena’s WL5e, the industry’s first programmable 800G solution. WL5e was used on the BRUSA cable to provide greater scale and increased economic efficiencies and deliver

50% more capacity per wavelength.

Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, based on WL5e coherent optics, also demonstrated how BRUSA can benefit from open cable network designs, rapid scalability, and a lower total cost of network ownership.

“WaveLogic 5 Extreme opens the door to a more scalable submarine network, which can support our customers as they continue to embrace new technologies that require unprecedented levels of bandwidth,” commented Carlos Dasi, Telxius’ Cable CTO. “This remarkable achievement is another example of how our collaboration with Ciena enables us to not only visualise what’s possible for our network, but to

turn those possibilities into reality.”

Telxius is the global infrastructure company of the Telefónica Group, with one of the largest telecommunication sites portfolio in the world. Its more than 20,000 sites are located in Europe and Latin America:

“Completing this trial showcases how WaveLogic 5 Extreme, which is an integral part of Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme network solution, raises the bar in coherent optical technology and demonstrates how Telxius’ current network can be transformed to provide an even more superior digital experience for their customers,” added Rodolfo Vigliano, Ciena’s senior managing director of sales.

Telxius’ BRUSA hits 160Tbps with Ciena’s WaveLogic 5

UK alternative fibre to the home (FTTH) network operator CityFibre has agreed to acquire TalkTalk Group’s FibreNation FTTH infrastructure arm, including TalkTalk’s shareholding in Bolt Pro Tem Ltd, for £200 million (US$261 million) in cash. The company also says it has modified the terms of its FTTH roll-out agreement with Vodafone to enable CityFibre to more rapidly open to other service providers the fibre broadband infrastructure the agreement covers.

Service provider TalkTalk says the sale is contingent upon shareholder approval; the company expects the acquisition to close in March 2020. CityFibre adds the addition of FibreNation’s FTTH infrastructure will enable the company to expand its roll-out target from 5 million to up to 8 million premises. The agreement, if consummated, will see TalkTalk become a CityFibre customer for the provision of both residential and business services.

CityFibre to buy FibreNation from TalkTalk

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago launched a new testbed for quantum communication experiments from Argonne. The Argonne quantum loop consists of a pair of connected 26-mile fibre-optic cables that wind circuitously between Argonne to the Illinois tollway near Bolingbrook, IL, and back. At 52 total miles, it is currently among the longest ground-based quantum communication channels in the country.

The loop will serve as a testbed for researchers

interested in leveraging the principles of quantum physics to send unhackable information across long distances. Researchers at Argonne and UChicago plan to use the testbed to explore science underlying quantum engineering systems and to harness the properties of quantum entanglement, a phenomenon Albert Einstein famously characterised as “spooky action at a distance.” Quantum entanglement links two (or more) particles so that they are in a shared state — such that whatever happens to one immediately affects the other, no matter how far apart they have travelled.

New quantum loop provides long national testbed for communication technology

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Inphi says it has completed the acquisition of eSilicon, as announced on November 11, 2019, in a transaction valued at approximately US$216 million in both cash and the assumption of debt. Inphi says the deal further solidifies Inphi’s market leadership and scale in high-performance electro-optics.

“We are pleased to complete the acquisition of eSilicon,” said Ford Tamer, President and CEO of Inphi Corporation. “We welcome eSilicon to the Inphi family

and are excited to advance our shared commitments in driving successful customer engagement, industry-leading innovation, and best of class execution.”

Inphi believes this acquisition will further reinforce its premier positioning in data centre interconnects, expand its presence into strategic geographic regions for talent acquisition and accelerate its strategic roadmap in developing electro-optics solutions for our Cloud and telecom customers.

Inphi Completes Acquisition of eSilicon

AFL has been awarded two new patents for technology and developments in Optical Connectivity and Apparatus (OCA) products. The first is for “Communications Module Housing.” The commercialised product, the CGM® Plus, is a rack mount panel that accepts different size and form factor xWDM modules. This invention includes a fibre management guide region that pivots downward to allow full access to the module storage slots, allowing for flexibility in the field to combine

various modules for xWDM applications.

The second is for “Methods, systems and apparatus for manufacturing a cable assembly with breakout and moulded cable assembly.” It recognises a unique process for creating a cable assembly furcation kit which offers protection for fibres under extreme environmental conditions. It also provides for scaling across a wide range of fibres. AFL has standardised on this format, calling it the SST furcation system.

AFL Receives Two New Patents

ADVA has announced it has successfully demonstrated Europe’s first 5G rail deployment in an operational environment. Using a combined optical and microwave transport solution, the demo succeeded in delivering multi-Gbps connectivity to fast-moving trains. Until now, supporting the handovers required for consistent broadband connectivity on trains traveling at speed was a major challenge. Built on ADVA’s G.metro passive optical technology and FSP 150 edge aggregation solution, the joint trial featured an integrated architecture for all train communication applications. mmWave access points were used to maintain track-to-train connectivity as well as programmable mobility functions for seamless onboard services. Part of the EU’s Horizon 2020

5G-PICTURE project, the demo was conducted by ADVA, Blu Wireless Technology, CNIT, COMSA Industrial and the local railway operator and infrastructure manager, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC).

“With this demo, we’ve presented the blueprints for the future of rail telecommunication networks. We’ve shown how a combined optical and microwave 5G architecture can carry both critical and non-critical communications, dramatically simplifying deployments and delivering significant cost reduction,” said Jim Zou, senior engineer, advanced technology, ADVA. “Unlike traditional railway telecommunication networks that rely on separate infrastructures, what we’ve proposed with this demo is a unified, automated network able to

support every application and prevent service interruptions. It delivers high-bandwidth internet access to passengers on the move, while also providing train operators with driver-to-control connectivity, access to surveillance cameras and mission-critical onboard applications. Now a single 5G network can provide all telco services for train companies, freight operators and passengers.”

Deployed across three stations of the FGC network in Barcelona, the 5G-PICTURE railway testbed interconnected a variety of end-user devices and compute resources using the most advanced optical and wireless network technologies. For the first time in Europe in a live operational scenario, the demo proved that a single integrated infrastructure can deliver safe, secure and reliable connectivity for all three categories

of train line services; critical, performance and business. Along the track, it leveraged mmWave links that intelligently steered beams to the train’s rooftop antennae for optimal backhaul and access connectivity. These were connected to passive WDM add/drop nodes built with ADVA’s low-latency G.metro system and each mmWave AP was capable of dedicated 10Gbps connectivity. All the traffic from the trackside was further aggregated to the railway operator’s core network based on ADVA’s 100Gbps Ethernet aggregation technology.

“This demo showed how we can harness an intelligent, open and scalable 5G network for everything from surveillance to passenger communications to mission-critical operational data transport,” commented Carles Terés Casals, director, R&D, FGC.

ADVA demos Europe’s first 5G rail deployment

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II-VI + FINISARProbably the biggest deal of 2019 was optoelectronic device manufacturer II-VI’s acquisition of Finisar for around US$3.2 billion, completed in September 2019, following antitrust clearance from the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation. Under the terms of the agreement, Finisar shareholders will receive on average US$15.60 in cash and 0.2218 shares of II-VI common stock per 1.0 share of Finisar common stock depending on each shareholder’s election as laid out in the merger agreement. The financing for the transaction was US$1.9 billion of cash raised in a combination of Term Loans A and B with a combined interest rate of L+251 and US$1.1 billion of the company’s stock, with Finisar shareholders owning around 32% of the combined company.

This deal means the combined company can offer a wide range of high-performance data communications transceivers, coherent transmission technology and ROADM solutions. II-VI will be able to address markets which include products next-generation subsea, long-haul and metro networks, hyperscale datacentres and 5G optical infrastructure, LIDAR optoelectronics and laser design. The merged company will also have a combined portfolio, which includes optoelectronic, optical and integrated circuit device design expertise, as well as GaAs, InP, SiC, GaN and diamond technologies, increasing its footprint in the burgeoning markets for RF devices for next-generation wireless, military applications, electric cars and green energy.Read the full story here.

CISCO + ACACIAAnother big acquisition in 2019 was network infrastructure company Cisco’s purchase of coherent optics specialist Acacia for US$2.6 billion. This is a classic case of a large company acquiring expertise it doesn’t currently possess in a developing market. The reasoning behind the purchase is that while Acacia is a relatively small company, it is very involved in the coherent optical interconnect market which looks to be growing rapidly in value and is already a multi-billion-dollar market, as demand for coherent optical interconnect moves from rack-based to pluggable components. Although Acacia has been supplying its optical systems and routers to Cisco for some time, taking the technology in-house should give Cisco more traction with its service provider and cloud customers.

Deals That Made The News In 2019

Most sectors of the telecoms industry undergo a degree of consolidation from

time to time, particularly when a new technology is coming to market, and the

fibre industry is no exception. The sector has responded to the onset of 5G and

the global demand for higher broadband capacity with massive developments

in cable design, connectivity, photonic components and transmission, and as

a result, some of the larger companies have been hitting the acquisition trail to

offer more complete solutions, writes Peter Dykes.

2019: A YEAR OF CONSOLIDATION

INDUSTRY FOCUSM&A’S

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2019: A YEAR OF CONSOLIDATION

The Acacia deal means Cisco will be competing directly with Infinera, Huawei and Ciena, being the only other optical system vendors with the in-house capability for developing and producing the key components for coherent line cards. It also enlarges Cisco’s footprint in the optical communications components market generally, following the company’s buy-out of Luxtera for US$660 million, which was completed in February 2019, and gave Cisco purchase in the 100GbE/400GbE integrated optics datacentre market, meaning the company has a foothold in both the short- and long-haul transmission sectors. At the time of writing, the deal has yet to be fully closed, pending the usual conditions, but it has to date received regulatory approval in Germany, China and the United States. On completion, Acacia employees will join Cisco’s Optical Systems and Optics business within the networking and security business under David Goeckeler. Read the full story here.

INPHI + ESILICON In a bid to take the lead in custom electro-optics, Inphi has signed a definitive agreement to acquire eSilicon for US$216 million in both cash and the assumption of debt. Once complete, Inphi expects the acquisition would combine Inphi’s DSP, TiA, Driver and SiPho disciplines with eSilicon’s 2.5D packaging and custom

silicon design capabilities and accelerate its roadmap for electro-optics, 5nm advanced CMOS process node, and custom DSP solutions, as well as augmenting Inphi’s existing SerDes (Serialiser/Deseriealiser) team and resources. Inphi has history with the eSilicon team through past interactions, investment and an ongoing board observer seat.Read the full story here.

CIENA + CENTINACiena has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Centina, a provider of service assurance analytics and network performance management solutions, for an undisclosed sum. Centina’s technology and engineering expertise will be integrated into Blue Planet, a division of Ciena. The acquisition of Centina is intended to accelerate Blue Planet’s software strategy of providing closed-loop, intelligent automation solutions that help communications service providers improve operational agility while delivering a highly differentiated customer experience. Specifically, the Centina solution will expand Blue Planet’s assurance capabilities by collecting and collating fault, event, and performance data from multiple vendors and network layers, including virtual domains such as NFV as well as more traditional optical, Ethernet and IP/MPLS networks

and services. Integrating Centina’s robust service assurance capabilities with Blue Planet Multi-Domain Service Orchestration (MDSO) and Blue Planet Inventory (BPI) will allow continuous optimisation of service performance, quality and availability on a proactive basis by resolving problems automatically before they impact the service and user experience.Read the full story here.

EKINOPS + PADTECEkinops, headquartered in Paris, France, a supplier of telecommunications solutions for telecom operators, has agreed to acquire the OTN-Switch (Optical Transport Network) platform developed by Padtec, an optical communications system manufacturer based in Brazil. Ekinops Group’s cash resources and debt will finance the acquisition, for an amount of €10 million in cash. To strengthen its balance sheet, but subject to favourable market conditions, the Group says it plans to carry out a capital increase by private placement, for an amount capped at 10% of the capital stock. OTN technology is used to switch data traffic over optical fibres, significantly optimising network bandwidth utilisation. The OTN technology developed by Padtec will allow Ekinops to meet growing market demand for this type of technology.Read the full story here.

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TOP PRODUCTS IN 2019From network architecture to cable ties, 2019 saw a plethora of new products and here, we list

just a few. They are not listed in any particular order, but we think each product will, in its own

way, have a significant impact on some aspect of the optical communications industry in the

coming year and beyond.

Every once in a very rare while, a technology comes along that feels like a game-changer and XR Optics, which the vendor describes as “the industry’s first point-to-multipoint coherent optical subcarrier aggregation technology optimised for hub-and-spoke traffic pattern,” does seem to fall into that category. Essentially, XR Optics utilises independently routable Nyquist subcarriers and coherent optical aggregation capabilities to divide a single high-speed wavelength into multiple low-baud-rate subcarriers. Rob Shore, Infinera’s SVP Marketing told Optical Connections, “Historically, if you pick 16 destinations, each of which required 100G of connectivity, you would need to put a 100G laser in each of those destinations. Then at the aggregation location there would be a device to

Infinera’s XR OpticsCanada-based test and monitoring company EXFO launched Optical Xplorer™, the first optical fibre multimeter (OFM). EXFO says the Optical Xplorer makes fibre testing simple for all frontline technicians, beginner, or expert—radically speeding up the process while empowering them to do more on-site. The device verifies optical links in seconds, and if faults are suspected, it finds and identifies them automatically. EXFO unveiled this new product category simultaneously at ANGA COM, Europe’s leading broadband exhibition; and at Fibre Connect, North America’s premier event for fibre broadband professionals.Read the full story here.

EXFO’s Optical Explorer

manage the traffic. On that device there would have to be 16 additional 100G transceivers. With XR Optics, there only needs to be a single 400G transceiver at the aggregation site, meaning that instead of 32 lasers, only 17 are required and instead of 16 ports, only one is needed.” Of course, the success of XR Optics in 2020 will depend heavily on the industry’s willingness to invest in the solution.Read the full story here.

HUBER+SUHNER has launched a Direct GPS-over-Fibre (GPSoF) solution which it claims is the first of its kind to facilitate a fibre optic connection to be made directly onto an antenna, eliminating the need for a separate power line. This new capability, the company says, has the potential to revolutionise the remote

antenna application landscape by addressing power constraints at the remote end. It is expected to provide significant benefits to installations within the aerospace and defence marketsRead the full story here.

HUBER+SUHNER’s copperless link to the antenna

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INDUSTRY FOCUSTOP PRODUCTS

Physical layer automation specialist Wave2Wave Solution has introduced a small form factor robotic fibre switch, ROME Mini. The company has expanded its ROME product portfolio to include the Mini in response to the fast-growing demands of edge computing, 5G, IoT, and AI as those technologies flex to support a new generation of applications such as self-driving cars. ROME Mini is sized at 19 inches making it rack mountable for data centre installation, as well as the ideal size for locations where optical fibres are running, such as sub-sea cable landing stations, outlying mobile backhaul facilities or the limited space under the floor. With its more than 200 fibre capacity, ROME Mini offers a lower price point of entry

Wave2Wave’s ROME Mini expands autonomous network with robots

INNO’s high magnification fusion splicerINNO Instrument Inc, a global developer of optical communications products and testing solutions, is showcasing what it claims is the world’s most advanced ribbon splicer, the View 12R, at OFC. To ensure fast and precise connectivity, fibres need to be spliced in a highly-visible environment with optimal lighting and magnification during the splicing process. With this in mind, INNO Instrument developed the View 12R which features the world’s highest magnification rate, of 250x with a simple double tap zoom for ultimate control.Read the full story here.

Physical layer automation specialist Wave2Wave Solution has introduced a small form factor robotic fibre switch, ROME Mini. The company has expanded its ROME product portfolio to include the Mini in response to the fast-growing demands of edge computing, 5G, IoT, and AI as those technologies flex to support a new generation of applications such as self-driving cars. ROME Mini is sized at 19 inches making it rack mountable for data centre installation, as well as the ideal size for locations where optical fibres are running, such as sub-sea cable landing stations, outlying mobile backhaul facilities or the limited space under the floor. With

Emtelle’s internal/external FTTH solution

Of the many new products on show at ECOC 2019, some of the smallest ones can be the most significant. A prime example is Rapstrap, which has launched what it claims is a revolutionary cable tie. Building on the experience gained with the original rapstrap – now known as the Classic, the company has developed the i-Tie (intelligent tie) as a more efficient alternative to the standard nylon cable tie.

When a tie has been made with an i-Tie and the end is cut off, the remainder of the tie can be used for successive ties until only 5% or less of the original tie remains, depending on the diameter of the cables being tied.Read the full story here.

i-Tie, a cabling revolution?

its more than 200 fibre capacity, ROME Mini offers a lower price point of entry while providing significant CAPEX and OPEX savings for network operators via automation.Read the full story here.

Sterlite Tech, a global data network solutions company, has launched its Fibre To The x (FTTx) solution – known as FTTx Mantra TM. It made its debut at the recent FTTH Conference 2019. Built as an end-to-end solution, FTTx Mantra TM is designed to empower communication service providers to swiftly roll-out FTTx networks at massive scale, near-zero response time and great agility at optimised costs. Sterlite commented that more than 55 per cent of the 7.6 billion people in the world are using the Internet today: “As they use more and more devices, content and apps, global annual IP traffic is growing exponentially, and is expected to reach 7 Zettabyte by 2020.Read the full story here.

Sterlite’s Mantra TM, ready-to-fit FTTx solution

while providing significant CAPEX and OPEX savings for network operators via automation.Read the full story here.

www.opticalconnectionsnews.com 11 INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

CONTROLLING THE SPEED OF LIGHT – AND SENDING IT BACKWARDSResearchers at the University of Central Florida, US, have developed a way to control the speed of light. Not only can they speed up a pulse of light and slow it down, they can also make it travel backwards. The results were published recently in the journal Nature Communications. This achievement is a major step in research that could one day lead to more efficient optical communication, as the technique could be used to alleviate data congestion and prevent information loss. With more and more devices coming online and data transfer rates becoming higher, this sort of control will be necessary.Read the full story here.

MANIPULATING LIGHT – WITH FOAMAn analysis by Princeton researchers has shown that a type of foam, long studied by scientists, is able to block particular wavelengths of light. This is acknowledged as a highly desirable property for next-generation information

technology that uses light instead of electricity. The researchers, integrating expertise from materials science, chemistry and physics, conducted exhaustive computational simulations of a structure known as a Weaire-Phelan foam. They found that this foam would allow some frequencies of light to pass through, while completely reflecting others. The selective blocking, known as a photonic band gap, is similar to the behaviour of a semiconductor.Read the full story here.

BREAKTHROUGH IN HOLLOW-CORE FIBREThe University of Southampton’s Optoelectronic Research Centre (ORC), based in the Zepler Institute of Photonics and Nanoelectronics (UK), has announced significant breakthroughs in hollow-core fibre (HCF) technology. It presented its “record results” in sessions at the ECOC conference in Dublin. Hollow-core fibres are optical fibres where the conventional glass in the core is replaced by a gas or vacuum. These fibres, with a so-called “holey” centre, have interested scientists and

engineers around the world for decades owing to their special properties, which include faster light speed and thus less information delay than glass-based counterparts. Such fibres also have the potential for lower loss and higher data transmission capacity than the conventional all-solid glass optical fibres in use today.Read the full story here.

TURNING OFF BACKSCATTERING TO IMPROVE OPTICAL DATA TRANSMISSIONEngineers at the University of Illinois have found a way to redirect misfit light waves to reduce energy loss during optical data transmission. In a study, researchers exploited an interaction between light and sound waves to suppress the scattering of light from material defects – which could lead to improved fibre optic communication. Their findings are published in the OSA journal Optica. Light waves scatter when they encounter obstacles, be it a crack in a window or a tiny flaw in a fibre optic cable. Much of that light scatters out of the system, but some of it scatters back toward

2019: A YEAR OF INNOVATIONIf nothing else, 2019 was a year of innovation in an industry which is still exploring the

possibilities of light as a transmission medium. From controlling light in new ways to developing

new materials and techniques for keeping optical communications secure, researchers have

made some major breakthroughs which could have massive implications for the industry in the

coming months and years.

INDUSTRY FOCUS2019

www.opticalconnectionsnews.com12INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

the source in a phenomenon called backscattering, the researchers said.Read the full story here.

LIGHT CONNECTS TWO WORLDS ON SINGLE CHIPResearchers of the University of Twente, Netherlands, say that for the first time they have succeeded in connecting two parts of an electronics chip using an on-chip optical link. A light connection could, for example, be a safer means of connecting high-power electronics and digital control circuitry on one chip, without a direct electrical link. Until now, however, an optical link was not possible using standard silicon chip technology. Vishal Agarwal, a UT PhD student, has managed to do so. He worked out how to develop a very small optocoupler circuit that delivers a data rate measured in megabits per second, and in an energy-efficient way.Read the full story here.

WORLD FIRST SOLITON MANIPULATION ON SILICON A collaboration between the Sydney Nano Institute and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has for the first time manipulated a light wave, or photonic information, on a silicon chip that retains its overall ‘shape’. The Sydney-Singapore team has for the first time observed ‘soliton’ dynamics on an Ultra-Silicon-Rich Nitride (USRN) device fabricated in Singapore using state-of-the-art optical characterisation tools at Sydney Nano. The team say this foundational work, published this week in Laser & Photonics Reviews, is important because most communications infrastructure still relies on silicon-based devices for propagation and reception of information. Manipulating solitons on-chip could potentially allow for the speed up of photonic communications devices and infrastructure. Ezgi Sahin, a PhD student at SUTD conducted the experiments with Dr Andrea Blanco Redondo at the University of Sydney.Read the full story here.

UK TESTS WORLD-FIRST COMMERCIAL-GRADE QUANTUM NETWORK LINKThe UK has marked a milestone in the development of ultra-secure quantum networks with the opening of the world’s first commercial-grade quantum test network link between the BT Labs in Suffolk and the Cambridge node of the UK’s new Quantum Network. A statement from BT noted that the advent of quantum computing will offer huge increases in computing power and capabilities, but in the wrong hands it could also be used to render many security encryption measures obsolete. In order to both provide and secure future communications, UK government and industry are working collaboratively on a range of new technologies, including Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). The new high-speed link will enable testing and demonstration of new quantum technologies. This will include trials of how these technologies can be used to secure critical and sensitive data across vertical industry sectors such as healthcare, banking, defence and logistics.Read the full story here.

QUANTUM INFO BOOSTED BY THIN-FILM BREAKTHROUGHEfforts to create reliable, light-based quantum computing, quantum key distribution for cybersecurity, and other technologies has received a boost from a new study demonstrating an innovative method for creating thin films to control the emission of single photons. “Efficiently controlling certain thin-film materials so they emit single photons at precise locations – what’s known as deterministic quantum emission – paves the way for beyond-lab-scale quantum materials,” said Michael Pettes, a Los Alamos National Laboratory materials scientist and leader of the multi-institution research team responsible for the study. The scalability of these two-dimensional, tungsten/selenium thin films makes them potentially useful in processes to manufacture

quantum technologies. Single-photon generation is a requirement for all-optical quantum computing and key distribution in quantum communications, and it is crucial for advancing quantum information technologies.Read the full story here.

NANOCOMPONENTS DEVELOPED FOR QUANTUM COMMSUniversity of Copenhagen researchers have developed a nanocomponent that emits light particles carrying quantum information. Less than one-tenth the width of a human hair, the miniscule component makes it possible to scale up, and could ultimately reach the capabilities required for a quantum computer or quantum internet. The focus of the researchers, based at the Centre for Hybrid Quantum Networks (Hy-Q) at the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute, is on developing quantum communication technology based on light circuits, known as nanophotonic circuits. The UCPH researchers say they have now achieved a major advance in this field. “It is a truly major result, despite the component being so tiny,” says Assistant Professor Leonardo Midolo, who has been working towards this breakthrough for the past five years.Read the full story here.

ENTANGLEMENT MILESTONE POINTS TO INTER-CITY QUANTUM NETWORKSA team led by Innsbruck physicist Ben Lanyon has sent a light particle entangled with matter over 50 km of optical fibre. This first-time achievement is hailed as paving the way for the practical use of quantum networks, and sets a milestone for a future quantum Internet. The Innsbruck team note that because quantum information cannot be copied, it is not possible to send this type of information over a classical network. Quantum information must be transmitted by quantum particles, and special interfaces are required for this.Read more here.

Less than one-tenth the width of a human hair, the miniscule component makes it possible to scale up, and could ultimately reach the capabilities required for a quantum computer or quantum internet.

INDUSTRY FOCUS2019

www.rosendahlnextrom.com

BEST PREFORMS BY INSPIRING R&DWhen caring for a family, you encounter so many inspiring

aspects in your daily life. Working in the Preform R&D

Center is the best place to live those inspirations. We love

to create, develop and turn an idea into reality. This kind of

passion cannot be bought, it is a part of us.

“ Inspiration isn’t something one can buy.”

Dr. Nergiz Özcan-Ketola, R&D Engineer Nextrom

MEET US THERE!

www.opticalconnectionsnews.com14INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

At the beginning of the year, the Market Panorama and forecast data prepared by IDATE for the FTTH Conference 2019, showed that FTTH/B was growing

fast in Europe. The report revealed that by September 2018, there were more than 59.6 million FTTH/B subscribers in the European region, an increase of 21%, with overall coverage reaching 36.4%. While Italy had the higher growth in homes passed at 43.1%, for the first time, the UK entered the ranking. The report found that the number of FTTH/B subscribers increased by 15.7% in the top 39 European countries since September 2017 with more than 59.6 million FTTH/B subscribers in September 2018. Although Russia, which is included in the group, leads in terms of FTTH/B subscribers in the European region, it has showed a lower growth rate compared to other European countries which are catching up quickly with a 21% growth rate. In addition, the deployment of both FTTH and FTTB networks has increased significantly, according to IDATE. It found that by September 2018 the estimated coverage of FTTH/B

reached 46.4% in the 39 group and 36.4% in EU282, which does not include countries such as Russia. This, said IDATE, shows a clear upward trend from

September 2015 where the estimated coverage rate was 39% in the EU39 and 27.2% in the EU28.Read the full story here.

2019: A GOOD YEAR FOR FTTH2019 was indeed a good year for FTTH rollouts, both in terms of the number of connections

made and investment in future access network expansion plans. Here we take a look at selected

European countries and their progress – or lack of – towards full fibre broadband for everyone.

Source: IDATE

INDUSTRY FOCUSFTTH ROLLOUTS

www.opticalconnectionsnews.com 15 INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

In France fibre broadband wagon was speeding up, with the number of premises made connectable to FTTH increasing by 1.13 million in Q2 2019. This is about 37% more than in the same period the previous year. According to the latest quarterly account from national telecoms regulator l’Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes (ARCEP), this was the best FTTH quarter recorded so far and, as of June 30, 2019, 15.58 million premises were eligible for FTTH offers, an increase of 32% in one year. Read the full story here.

According to a report published in November, by the Spanish telecommunications regulator Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC), in September 2019 almost 170,000 new fibre connections were added to the national total. Extrapolating from CNMC figures, the number of Spanish FTTH connections is now fast approaching 10 million. The new additions represent an annual increase of 1.7 million FTTH lines compared to the figure for September 2018. This offsets a reduction in country-wide DSL connections of 1.2 million in the same period. The FTTH market leader with 4.2 million lines, or 43.4% of the total, was the Telefónica-owned Movistar. Earlier in the month, the smaller Spanish FTTH player MasMovil inked an agreement to sell a stake in its FTTH network covering around 940,000 units to a partnership of Macquarie Capital and Aberdeen Standard Investments. The price was €218.5 million. Read the full story here.

A report released in October predicted that in 2019 the availability of German broadband Gigabit-capable connections YoY will grow by 73% to 19 million.

As components of this, the number of subscribers passed by FTTB/FFTH connections will expand by 20% to 4.4 million, while the number of Gigabit-capable ports on cable HFC networks (DOCSIS 3.1) will almost double from 7.4 million in 2018 to 14.7 million by the end of this year. In Germany Gigabit ports are presently only available with FTTB/FTTH and HFC cable networks with DOCSIS 3.1. The new analysis, prepared by Dialog Consult and the industry association, the Verband der Anbieter von Telekommunikations- und Mehrwertdiensten (VATM), also estimates that the private sector will be responsible for financing 92% of the growth. Read the full story here.

Also in Germany, Emtelle announced a strategic partnership with Deutsche Glasfaser, a leading FTTH provider, for the supply of a range of tube bundles and fibre cables in a contract worth €63 million. Combining two market leaders in FTTH deployment and solution manufacture, the long-term agreement secures the supply of Emtelle’s complete passive FibreFlow solution; from minicables and microducts from exchange to cabinet, and the distribution of Emtelle’s pre-installed fibre systems and tube bundles from cabinet to home. For the final home connection, a range of customer entry systems, termination boxes and patchcords will complement the entire package.Read the full story here.

It’s a rather different story in the UK however. Creeping on to the IDATE report with just 1.5% of combined FTTH/B penetration, UK FTTH/B in 2018 subscriptions grew by 83% compared to September 2017 for a total of 369,250 subscribers, and FTTH/B homes passed

rose to 22.8% reaching 2,817,000, although these figures are from a very low base. By April 2019, around 400,000 UK properties gained access to full-fibre broadband for the first time over the first four months of the year, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom, which gave access to a total of 8% of all premises, marking a one percentage point gain, the watchdog said. The newly-elected government in the UK had already set out a plan for full fibre earlier in 2019, however Prime Minister Boris Johnson was questioned at the time by the industry on the grounds that “ambition alone would not be enough to overcome the scale of the considerable task ahead.” Industry groups also called for the removal of regulatory barriers to speed up provision.Read the full story here.

Meanwhile, in the Republic of Ireland, National Broadband Ireland (NBI), established by investment firm Granahan McCourt, has signed a contract with the Irish government to deliver the country’s National Broadband Plan (NBP). The project aims to end the digital divide between urban and rural communities, promising to provide equal opportunities for every home, farm and business in Ireland. “Once the plan is completed 100% of the population will have access to a modern and reliable broadband network, capable of supporting current and future generations,” said NBI.The scheme will involve laying 146,000km of fibre cable to connect every one of the 537,000 premises in the roll-out area. “The full deployment across 96% of Ireland’s land mass is recognised as one of the most ambitious telecom infrastructure projects globally.” NBI added.Read the full story here.

Once the plan is completed 100% of the population will have access to a modern and reliable broadband network, capable of supporting current and future generations

INDUSTRY FOCUSFTTH ROLLOUTS

www.opticalconnectionsnews.com16INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

ACCESS OPTICSAccording to LightCounting’s annual Next Generation Access Optics report and forecast, published in December 2019, sales of optical transceivers for wireless fronthaul and backhaul more than doubled in 2019 because of acceleration in deployments of 5G in China. It says that this market segment will continue to grow rapidly in 2020-2021, but it is projected to

decline subsequently. It finds that Chinese service providers plan to complete most of their fronthaul deployments for 5G in the next two to three years and growing demand for these products from all other regions will not be sufficient to compensate for lower sales in China. Service providers in the US and Europe have a lot less fronthaul fibre deployed, and other regions are even further behind.

While all service providers will continue to deploy more fibre and fronthaul optics, all these projects combined will not be able to match the scale of initial deployments of fronthaul optics in China.Read more here.

AOCS AND EOMSAt the end of 2019, LightCounting also released the 12th edition of its active optical cables (AOCs) and embedded optical modules (EOMs) report which found that despite the diversity in products, nearly two-thirds of the total units from 2020-2024 will be due to just two products, 1x10G and 1x25G AOCs. That’s in spite of the fact that the company’s new AOC unit forecast for the year 2023, shown in the figure below, is 43% lower than its December 2018 forecast, mainly due to reduction in demand estimates for 1xN products by Chinese hyperscale datacenter operators. LightCounting’s AOC revenue forecast for 2023 has increased 20% however, due to a new 400G (8x50G) AOC that it believes will see significant usage in high performance computers (HPCs), cloud, and core routing applications.

The last couple of years have seen players in the fibre optic communications industry thrive, as

operators globally look to meet demands for higher data speeds and increased connectivity. But

will the boom continue? We look to some top analysts for answers.

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK, 2020 AND BEYOND

Source: LightCounting

INDUSTRY FOCUSOUTLOOK 2020

www.opticalconnectionsnews.com 17 INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK, 2020 AND BEYOND

LightCounting says that in the late 1990’s, telecom equipment used optical interconnects between racks of multi-chassis systems such as optical cross connects. Those systems collapsed physically into single racks but we are now seeing new-generation multi-chassis systems for optical transport to handle ever-increasing bandwidth. While 4 or 5 equipment OEMs are planning or considering the use of EOMs between chassis, LightCounting assumes this will bring a good but not huge total volume, ramping from 2018 onward. Other applications of EOMs, including military, aerospace and industrial, are high-value, long-lived opportunities. These have had success since 2011 and the report sees accelerating growth as optics replaces copper in places where performance, size, weight and power trumps cost, particularly in military and aeronautics. So far, this category is a collection of niche applications but those applications actually number in the hundreds. Read more here.

COHERENT DWDMIn its recent market forecast, telecoms and networks analyst Dell’Oro Group, says coherent DWDM revenue is forecast to reach US$16 billion by 2023. This revenue growth will be driven by 200+ Gbps wavelength shipments, it observes.

“The 100 Gbps growth cycle is behind us,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro. “This doesn’t mean that coherent 100 Gbps wavelengths are no longer needed. It is just that with new 60 Gbaud and soon to be released 90 Gbaud based line cards, the reach of 200 Gbps and 400 Gbps coherent signals can reach much further and help service providers lower their cost-per-bit.”

The report says that the total WDM market comprising metro and long-haul systems is forecast to grow at a 5% CAGR; WDM Metro will slightly outpace DWDM Long Haul growth during the forecast period. Furthermore, disaggregated WDM systems are projected to exceed US$3 billion in revenue by 2023 and 200 Gbps

wavelengths are forecast to comprise the highest share of shipments in three years. Finally, 800 Gbps wavelength shipments are projected to begin ramping in 2020.Read more here.

PHOTONICSA research report available from MarketsandMarkets, predicts the global photonics market will grow from US$520.0 billion in 2017 to US$780.4 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 7.0 % during the forecast period. The B2B research company says the growth of this market is driven by the increased demand from applications such as displays, information and communication technology, photovoltaic systems, medical technology and life sciences, measurement and automated vision, lighting, and production technology. It adds that there is also growing demand for technologically advanced products owing to digitalisation, development of smart infrastructures and adoption of smart manufacturing.Read more here.

According to figures released by the UK’s Photonics Leadership Group (PLG), companies manufacturing and delivering services based on photonics technology in the UK produce £13.5 billion in output every year, contribute £5.3 billion of gross added value to the UK economy annually and employ 69,000 people in the UK at a productivity of £76,400 per employee.The latest PLG analysis has reviewed the 1200 companies operating in and around photonics ensuring that only the most relevant UK-based companies were included with locations based on real manufacturing and operating addresses. This year’s analysis drew from 930 separate organisations made up of 1,030 legal entities with 1,100 operating locations.Read more here.

The 100 Gbps growth cycle is behind us,

[but] this doesn’t mean that coherent 100

Gbps wavelengths are no longer needed.

Source: LightCounting

INDUSTRY FOCUSOUTLOOK 2020

18INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020 www.opticalconnectionsnews.com

ADDRESSING THE SKILLS SHORTAGE:

Writing in the autumn 2019 edition of Optical Connections, Jay Tourigny, senior vice president of MicroCare,

which manufactures fibre inspection and cleaning products says, “To provide a faultless multi-gigabyte service that the UHFC cables promise, the fibre used in the networks must be properly installed and perfectly cleaned to support successful connectivity. However, finding qualified fibre optic splicing, cleaning and installation technicians can be difficult. Many technicians in the field today have more experience with copper cable, but lack the knowledge for fibre optics. This is especially true in more rural areas where fibre optics networks are not as prevalent.” One of the consequences of this, says Tourigny, is that some contractors are

flying fibre installation teams in from metro areas to complete the fibre work on their data centres. He adds, “There is real concern within the industry that the combination of extensive travel along with the intensity and amount of work required may actually cause burnout on some of the installation teams.”

The skill shortage has been eased to some extent by the fact that many fibre industry vendors have greatly simplified the design and operation of their products, implemented cloud-based systems for logging installation, fault testing and cable design, but there are other issues not so easily addressed.

Germain Lamonde, founder, CEO and group chairman of test and measurement company EXFO, told Optical Connections, “We’ve put ourselves in the shoes of the

front-line technicians who install FTTH; FTTC or fibre to small/micro-cell. We know that the UK and Germany are among the countries that have massive plans going in that direction. We believe that by putting automation and intelligence in the test sets, we can reduce requirements for training. If you’re in the UK for example, you can train people easily, but in more remote places it’s often more difficult to get access to fully trained technicians.”

Speaking to Optical Connections, Martyn Cook, group chairman of training specialist CTTS Group, said, “In some circumstances training has been made easier with automated machines, but can you imagine drivers of semi-automated cars driving around without knowledge of the Highway Code? One thing I have identified that causes issues is the term ‘low skill’. We have often been called in

Training A Workforce For Fibre.One of the big issues facing the fibre optics communications industry in 2019,

and which will continue to have an impact well into 2020 and beyond, is the

shortage of skilled technicians. With massive rollouts of FTTx across Europe

and the United States, the proliferation of datacentres and the onset of 5G,

demand for trained technicians and engineers is already outstripping supply, a

situation likely to continue for several years to come. Basic training for e.g. FTTx

installation technicians has been made somewhat easier thanks to the design

of new test and splicing equipment, however the practical skills necessary for

optical networks are so radically different to those required for copper-based

networks that even experienced technicians need a degree of retraining in order

to make the switch to fibre. Optical Connections Editor Peter Dykes looks at how

the skills shortage is being addressed.

PETER DYKESTRAINING

19www.opticalconnectionsnews.com INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

From health and safety, to knowing how to document, install and maintain networks, training

is a strong requirement in telecommunications

to upskill engineers who initially received very little training as it was deemed low skill, with one recent example of an engineer returning the equipment to stores as it wasn’t working, to be informed the functional settings were incorrect for the application! Often, we see sales representatives getting bogged down in training clients on their products, which is often rushed and isn’t delivered by trained assessors with measured outcomes. Product knowledge is good, training, delivery and assessing competency is different.”

He adds, “Although CTTS is vendor independent, we have a long working history with EXFO in the test and measurement, Fujikura for fusion splicing and Prysmian and Commscope for connectivity solutions. Most recently, CTTS has been engaged by Emtelle as their training partner to support their customers in the UK and across Europe. This list isn’t exhaustive, we are constantly engaged to provide training support for new products rollouts “Emerging Methods” and applications. This is often preceded with training the trainer at the manufacturer’s premises resulting in the training programme design.”

“From health and safety, to knowing how to document, install and maintain networks, training is a strong requirement in telecommunications,” says Dave Rames, field support team leader at Emtelle. “Our partnership with CTTS is a new chapter for us as we further build on our mission to provide our customers with the most reliable and effective fibre and cabling solutions in the market. The range of training we can now offer will make sure our customers’ staff have the skills necessary to ensure that the solutions they are deploying are utilised to the highest

possible standard.”

Cook says that the skills that are in demand are across all areas, regardless of the application there are shortages in skilled engineers across a broad range of disciplines, but new ones are coming along all the time. He says, “We are now seeing volume demand for ribbon fibre technology ingesting into metro, core and access networks links, creating the demand to upskill even the most experienced traditional fibre jointing engineers. On recent courses, engineers with 30 years’ experience commented that this [ribbon cable] is a game changer. Hardened connectorised network technology is being deployed across Europe and globally. FTTx applications never cease to amaze me with demands coming in from industry sectors with applications that need the bandwidth capabilities of fibre.”

The range of people being trained is as diverse as the skills required. Cook says that CTTS is upskilling engineers with redundant skills in the operators work force and skilling new entrants into the sector. He adds, “From our open courses and commercial contracted induction courses we are finding people with a whole variety of different backgrounds that have seen fibre optic technology offering a future career path. CTTS has been engaged to help regions of

economic shock where other industries close factories and production plants to reskill workers for the telecoms sector. The communications providers, often referred to as the altnets, have no ready trained workforces to draw from, predominantly are start-ups with substantial investment and recognise the need for investment in training of new skills for new engineers, applications and our training needs analysis identifies their methodology.”

Experienced copper-based network engineers do have an advantage when it comes to retraining for fibre however. Having knowledge of cabling standards, attenuation, decibel, dBm helps with understanding the differing mediums that are integral to fibre networks.

So what are the prospects for the future? Will demand for training decline as FTTx rollout continues apace? Cook doesn’t think so. He says, “We are not experiencing particular volume demand from any one country just steady repeated demand for fibre and air blown fibre micro duct network training across Europe. Our presence at ECOC has seen a year on year increased demand for our services. The demand on our services and that for skilled and qualified engineers across Europe is vertical and we do not envisage any slowdown for the next 10 years with the stampede to all homes passed and subscriber grabs!”

Jay TourignySenior vice president, MicroCare

Germain LamondeFounder, CEO and group chairman, EXFO

Martyn CookGroup chairman, CTTS Group

Dave RamesField support team leader, Emtelle

CTTS training workshop at ECOC 2019

PETER DYKESTRAINING

20INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020 www.opticalconnectionsnews.com

PD: In a nutshell, how did BBWF go for you?GB: We had three major areas of focus and within those areas, we had a number of demonstrations at the show. One showcased the latest developments of our Cloud Central Office (CloudCO) and Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA) which was all about automation and virtualisation and the other demonstrations were all around the Connected Home, where that is going and how a standards-based approach can provide a clear and simple migration path for operators. In addition to the demonstrations, we ran two workshops that were extremely well attended, one exploring the aforementioned Connected Home, and a second covering another key area of focus for the Forum, 5G. Our booth was completely packed during the entire show and we had a lot of traffic running through there. With those three areas, we felt we were right on the money with regard to where people’s interest lay.

PD: Where does fibre optics sit with the Broadband Forum?RM: It’s a very hot topic for us. In the new year, we will be launching the first certified products for 10G PON, including XGS-PON and NG-PON2. What’s good about this is that we will

be ahead of the curve this time. When we did the certifications for GPON, that was designed to open up that market so that any of the ONU players could bid on RFPs, but that was after G-PON had already started to be deployed. This time, however, there will be certification right from the beginning. The hope of the industry, therefore, is that this will really accelerate deployments for 10G PON. I think most people see those [technologies] as precursors of 5G because they fit in with the whole fronthaul/backhaul discussion. So, fibre is a big topic for us, but more of the PON variety. Traditionally, we haven’t done as much work on point-to-point, for example, and while we do pay attention to that sort of technology, it obviously hasn’t needed the same degree of standards activity, so we’ve been more PON focused. I think even in areas where PON wasn’t being deployed as fast, we’re starting to see a lot more announcements and processes are speeding up, with the UK being a good example.

PD: What else is Broadband Forum planning to work on in 2020?GB: We have four major areas of focus. There’s a lot of activity going on in 5G, the Connected Home, Cloud and Cloud CO, and in 10G access. From an issue perspective, there are a couple of things on top of that which are

getting a lot of momentum right now. One is a Vodafone-sponsored project called Broadband Quality Experience Delivered (Broadband QED), which is an acknowledgement that speed should not be the only factor that plays into the perception of the quality of the broadband connection. We’ve been working with machine learning and algorithms for measuring and tapping into all the other aspects of broadband delivery, such as latency, jitter and elements of quality and a whole range of other areas and basically driving that forward. We have seen a lot of companies coming on board with helping to promote and build products around that. Fibre has a play there too, and across the whole broadband spectrum, as companies move towards fibre and delivering hyper-broadband speeds across different media types.

In the Connected Home area, we’ve seen a lot of progress in the evolution of TR069, which hit one billion installations a year ago. This has now evolved into a new platform which we call the User Services Platform (USP). USP has gained a lot of momentum over the last year. In particular, there were a number of demonstrations by the Forum, many of them sponsored by Vodafone and other companies which have been driving that work forward. We’ve also been doing a lot of work in the Connected Home

Following Broadband Forum’s appearance at the 2019 Broadband World Forum conference and expo, Peter Dykes spoke with the Forum’s CEO Robin Mersh and CMO Geoff Burke about the organisation’s current work and its roadmap for 2020.

THE VIEW FROM: BROADBAND FORUM

BROADBAND FORUM

21www.opticalconnectionsnews.com INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

[Fibre] is a very hot topic for us. In the new year, we will be launching the first certified

products for 10G PON, including XGS-PON and NG-PON2.

around Wi-Fi and mesh Wi-Fi, and its measurability in both quality and the application of mesh.

Looking at 5G, that is going to accelerate toward mass deployment in this coming year so we’ve been doing a lot of foundation work on that with 3GPP and others to establish how convergence happens with the existing network infrastructure and what the services will look like in the converged world of the future. A lot of the work we’ve done to date will come to fruition in the next six-to-nine months as those standards get solidified and we actually see real 5G deployments hitting the market, rather than the trials and technology tweaks we’ve seen up to now.

With our work on Cloud and CloudCO, we made a couple of interesting announcements at BBWF. We’ve been doing a lot of work with Open Networking Foundation on establishing the role that our Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction projects will be playing in the future, which can be best described as a leading path for carriers seeking to implement SDN and virtualisation overall in brownfield deployments. That’s a major area of focus and the demonstrations at BBWF were extremely popular so there’s a lot of momentum in that area. Additionally, there’s the certification

of 10G PON at the beginning of 2020. We’ve been doing a lot of activity around that space and we don’t want to limit it to 10G because there’s been a lot of conversations especially driven by 5G around 25G, 40G and 100G, and we’ll be doing a lot of work around that in the coming months as well. The Virtual Broadband Network Gateway is also something that’s getting a lot of focus and momentum.

PD: Does Broadband Forum look at issues around hybrid broadband network management?RM: Yes, this is something we’ve been focused on for quite a long time, to get a more homogenous view of network management for broadband. The more similarly you manage them, the easier it is, as you have to worry about co-existence and certainly migration. Some of our early work was about creating some abstraction but that has progressed ever since. We have a YANG modelling project that has been going on for some time and the idea there is to have as much similarity as possible between the access technologies, which means you can then abstract the management to a higher layer. The YANG itself was delivered as a regular specification and we subsequently took it into an open source project with the automation piece being a particularly interesting feature.

It is worth noting however that our work differs from the work on high-level management being done by other organisations, because we are working on element management, which is much lower down in the network. When we talk about commonality, it is about getting away from proprietary element management, and that’s been very successful. This work could lead not just to more common management, but also much more successful interoperability and then potentially a much stronger migration path, opening broadband networks to more programmability, including potentially, white box solutions. This is a very interesting area for us because even though we talk about it in terms of software and management, its knock-on effect is much bigger.

Robin Mersh, CEO Broadband Forum

Geoff Burke, Chief Marketing Officer Broadband Forum

BROADBAND FORUM

22INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020 www.opticalconnectionsnews.com

XXXX XXXX

Made to accommodate various challenges in the FTTH market, the new NanoFlow MAX fiber blowing machine from Fremco A/S now

has the capacity of blowing fiber from 0.8 mm up to 4.5 mm micro cables!

With this 50% increase in cable diameter, the competitively priced machine can now blow both blown fibre (EPFU) and micro/nano cables. This way you can perform various fiber deployment jobs, making it the most versatile fiber blowing machine within the FTTH market.

The NanoFlow MAX still has its distinctive small size and only weighs 2.8 kg, making it lightweight and handy in the field. It is easy and quick to open and close by hand when inserting fiber/micro cable. Its adjustable clamping force gives the machine a secure grip around the cable diminishing damage to the fiber/cable, making the machine more powerful than it looks.

Head of Research and Development at Fremco, Hans Jacob Møller, explains the reason for the birth of the machine:

“The NanoFlow MAX is a response to market requests. The market wanted a simple, strong and well-priced machine for FTTH. NanoFlow MAX is extremely easy to setup, operate and disassemble, and with the significant increase in adjustable push and grip force it has truly become the ‘Swiss knife’ within FTTH equipment.”

IMPROVEMENTS:• Cable diameter has increased by 50%

(From 3.0 mm to 4.5 mm)• Cable duct diameter has increased from

10 mm to 12.7 mm • Equipped with an adjustable clamping

force that gives a better grip around the cable, thus diminishing fiber damage

• Tools free installation

NANOFLOW MAX PERFORMING IN THE FIELDThe machine has been tested on an IEC test track and it performed!

In a 1000 m IEC test track, a 4.5 mm micro cable was blown in a 12/8 mm duct. Out of several tests, NanoFlow MAX reached an average of 430-450 m without lubrication and a stunning 550 m with lubrication.

NanoFlow MAX is only designed to reach a couple of hundred meters when blowing micro cables of 3.0-4.5 mm, but due to great fiber blowing technique and lubrication it can reach so much more. When blowing fiber of 0.8-3 mm, the NanoFlow MAX can reach up to 1200 m during installation.

The machine is fully automatic and equipped with Fremco’s unique fiber protection technology, stopping the fiber cable if it meets any obstacles during installation. This secures the best installation job without fiber damage, whilst it diminishes need for extra technicians.

Contact Fremco at sales@fremco.dk for further information on NanoFlow MAX or other Fremco products.

WHO IS FREMCO A/S?Fremco is an innovative Danish company. Since the mid-90s, Fremco has specialized in the development and production of fiber optic blowing machines.

Today, Fremco is ISO 9001 certified and offers a large range of fiber blowing machines and accessories covering all dimensions of fiber cables and ducts

Fremco A/S • + 45 72 30 12 13 www.fremco.dk

Larger cable diameter, more power and greater opportunities at a great price!

NanoFlow MAX specifications:Fiber/micro cable diameter 0.8-4.5 mmMicroduct diameter 3.0-12.7 mmBlowing distance Up to 1200mBlowing speed Up to 125 m/minRecommended pressure Max. 10 bar and airflow (200 l/min)Pushing Force 2 kgWeight 2.8 kgLength 212 mmWidth 104 mmHeight 139 mm

NANOFLOW MAX

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

23www.opticalconnectionsnews.com INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

The Royal Dublin showground proved an excellent venue for the ECOC 2019 Conference and Expo. Returning to the venue for the third time, the Expo filled over 10,000 square kilometres and more than 300 exhibitors and 6,569 delegates and visitors gathered at the event to discuss and debate the future and unveil some of the latest developments in the fibre optic industry.

THE CONFERENCEThe 45th European Conference on Optical Communications offered delegates the chance to hear to hear the thoughts of some of the finest minds from both academia and the wider fibre optics and photonics industries. It also featured a range of workshops and presentations aimed at addressing some of the issues facing the industry going forward, and in many cases, offering solutions. The conference also included live demos of prototypes, detailed tutorials and workshops and ample networking opportunities at some of Dublin’s greatest visitor attractions.

For the first time at ECOC, Conference organisers introduced an interactive poster session where all posters were displayed on large touch screens, allowing the presenters to fully explain their work in an interactive forum. In addition, the Conference featured a major public outreach event, primarily for secondary school students, the highlight of which was Professor Brian Cox’ discussion on the origin and evolution of our solar system and the universe.

PLENARIESFor four days, over 400 presentations featured speakers from Facebook, China Mobile, BT, Huawei and University College Cork, among others. The plenary sessions offered an overview of the issues explored during the conference and delegates got the chance to hear from five industry-

leading experts who provided insights into new and emerging technologies that have the potential to shape the future of photonics. These included Dr. Katherine Schmidke, sourcing manager, Optical Technology Strategy at Facebook; Dr. Chih-Lin I, Chief Scientist, Wireless Technologies, at China Mobile Research Institute; Timothy John Whitley, managing director, Research and Innovation at BT; Richard Jin, president, Transmission and Access Network Product Line at Huawei Technologies; Irish physicist Séamus Davis, Professor of Physics at Oxford University, Professor of Quantum Physics at University College Cork and Emeritus Professor of Physics at Cornell University.

TUTORIALS AND WORKSHOPSDelegates were also able to attend a wide variety of tutorials on topics such as modelling and designing optical fibres; high speed InP lasers for 400GbE; the principles of coherent signal reconstruction based on direct detection, optical interconnects in data centres; quantum limits in optical communications; the status of and prospects for terahertz communication; high speed optical access networks for mobile fronthaul architectures and optical disaggregation; the role of SDN in converging mobile, access, and cloud networks and much more besides. There were also eight workshops available in which attendees could explore topics which included integrated photonics, hybrid PICs, Neuromorphic DSP/machine

learning, ultra-wideband communications, new modelling challenges in optical communications, the role of optical communications beyond 5G, PONs at 50G and beyond and low-latency optical communications. And then there’s the demos...

DEMONSTRATIONSThe Hibernia room at the Intercontinental Hotel was the venue for ten demo sessions on Monday 23rd September. The live session provided a forum for researchers from industry and academia to demonstrate their work with concrete systems, tools and prototypes. The demo’s covered all topics corresponding to those covered by the Conference and included everything from machine-learning-assisted security monitoring in optical networks, to reliable optical networks with ODTN, resiliency and failover in data plane and control plane; coordinated fibre and wireless spectrum allocation in SDN-controlled wireless-optical-cloud converged architecture. Other topics included quantized deep natural network empowering an IM-DD Link running in real-time on a field programmable gate array; dynamic synthesis of disaggregated hardware platforms via cache coherent interconnect optical bridge and a distributed MU-MIMO demonstration using FPGA based sigma-delta-over-fibre. The full range of demo’s is far too long to list in the space available here.

SPECIAL EVENTSThe Photonic Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Symposium took place on Sunday 22nd September in the Minerva Room at the RDS. This was followed on Tuesday 24 September, by the 7th International Symposium for Optical Interconnect in Data Centres at the RDS. Then on Wednesday 25th September, Professor Brian Cox expounded the Wonders of the Universe in the RDS Concert Hall.

ECOC 2019 portended the exciting year that lies ahead for the industry. As the world moves forward into a total connectivity future, fibre is the great enabling technology, and the optical community gathered at the Conference and Expo in Dublin sent out a strong message that it is already rising to meet that challenge. Exhibition and conference goers to Europe’s largest optical connections event were treated to three days of product demonstrations, talks, presentations and company news at the vanguard of optical communication technology that will mark the event as one of the best yet for ECOC. If ECOC 2019 was anything to go by however, the 2020 event should be even better. Optical Connections editor Peter Dykes looks back at some of the highlights.

There was no shortage of visitors at ECOC 2019!

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24INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020 www.opticalconnectionsnews.com

ECOC is a milestone every year for us, because all of our customers are here, all of our partners are

here and for us, it’s a very important show.Tomas Yanes, solutions and product marketing manager at Viavi Solutions

THE EXHIBITIONOne of the first presentations was made by Mark Nowell, Cisco Fellow, who considered what the networks will need for 400 GbE and how the latest technologies can be leveraged and extended to facilitate the next generation of optical networking. An ECOC video interview with Mark on 400 GbE and be seen here. The role of hyperscale datacentres and a glimpse into how optics will transition from the faceplate to on-board and ultimately co-packaging was put forward by Brad Booth, manager, Networking and Connectivity Hardware Azure Hardware Systems Group, Microsoft, on behalf of COBO. COBO compliant modules were also under the spotlight as Ciena speaker and COBO Electrical sub-group chair, Hugues Tournier, shared insight into how data centre traffic is driving the need for increased electrical high-speed rates, while explaining the benefits in shortening the electrical trace length and mounting optics close to the system ASICs.

HUBER+SUHNER was one of the exhibiting companies to make an announcement on the opening day of ECOC, as it launched its LISA Double Access solution to the crowds. Based on the existing LISA system, the new LISA Double Access configuration is a high-density and modular cross-connect fibre management system which offers a clear physical demarcation point, providing a separation of incoming and outgoing connectivity. The system’s use of the new 1,500 mm rack reduces customers’ floor space requirements by 17%, compared to a conventional LISA setup with equivalent port density. LISA Double Access enables high-density applications for up to 2 x 100 LISA cassettes, which corresponds to a maximum density of 3,600 ports per rack. Source Photonics focused its exhibition presence on 400G, using the exhibition to showcase its full 400G portfolio. In addition, Imec announced the extension of its silicon photonics portfolio, representing important progression for 400Gb/s and

beyond optical links, and co-packaged optics in next-generation datacentre switches.

Even on the final day of the Expo, an impressive number of exhibitor announcements were made. ECOC exhibitor, Infinera, delighted visitors to its stand, by providing insight into the significance of its addition of XR Optics – a game-changing technology for transport network transformation. Essentially, XR Optics utilises independently routable Nyquist subcarriers and coherent optical aggregation capabilities, enabling network operators to design more efficient, flexible, and cost- effective transport networks optimised for the applications driving network growth. Nyquist subcarrier technology, pioneered by Infinera, divides a single high-speed wavelength into multiple efficient low-baud-rate subcarriers. The technology is enhanced with granular subcarrier control, allowing tighter spectrum packing which results in higher capacity-reach on a single fibre. Dave Welch, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Infinera gives a complete explanation of XR Optics in a video interview here.

A regular feature at ECOC is the Fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) Centre and its arrival in Dublin saw an array of new products for 2019, backed by expert training provided CTTS Training Group. “There is so much

going on in terms of Fibre-to-the-X right now and we have some of the very latest solutions ready for demonstration here in Dublin,” said Martyn Cook, CTTS Training Group Chairman.

MARKET FOCUSAs ever, Market Focus was the centre of attention for many attendees, featuring an extended range of topics, including sessions on New Markets. Kicking off with a Market Focus talk that set the tone for quality insight for the rest of the event, Lisa Huff, Principal Analyst, Optical Components at Ovum, delivered an overview of data centre networks, discussing how optical integration and silicon photonics will affect the market. The data centre topic remained at the front of attendees’ minds thanks to ‘Integrated Silicon Photonics for Future Datacenter Applications’, delivered by Thomas Liljeberg, general manager, Integration, at Silicon Photonics Products Division at event sponsors Intel.Sessions assessed how 5G mobile communications are bringing about new opportunities for higher Quality of Service (QoS) and bandwidth, increasing competition without compromising on quality. To add to the debate on co-packaged and in-packaged optics for switching, Adit Narasimha, vice president and general manager, Optoelectronics, at Molex explored the practical considerations required, stressing the merits of different co-packaged architectures. Narasimha said, “Speeds are just getting faster and faster, and hyperscale datacentres are moving to faster switching speeds, so if you look at a switching roadmap, we’re at 12.8 Tbps with all this 400G stuff

Fibre Access was high on the agenda for the afternoon sessions as the FTTH Council Market Panorama became a hot topic. Speaking on behalf of the FTTH Council was its President, Kees de Waard, who spoke about the recent league table, which not only ranked 39 European

One of the many demo’s in the FTTx area

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25www.opticalconnectionsnews.com INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

countries but also gave detailed insight into levels of fibre-coverage and take-up rates across the continent.

Sessions presented by Nokia, Infinera and Source Photonics concluded day one, which saw 5G once again taking the limelight as challenges in 5G Optical Interfaces and Modules were considered. Source Photonics’ speaker, Manish Mehta EVP, PLM gave insight into his review of state-of-the-art higher speed laser technologies as he channelled the discussion towards the various optical interfaces that are widely expected to be utilised for 5G applications.After lunch, delegates were still hungry for more from the day two Market Focus speakers as sessions on service and content provider optical transmissions began.

As the first half of day two as Market Focus rolled on, presentations from Lightwave Logic on meeting the new challenges of 400, 800, and 1600 Gbaud data rates, Hewlett Packard Enterprise on green supercomputing, and Acacia Communications on coherent technology contributed to the buzz around a successful morning of talks on photonics integration and digital silicon photonics.Martin Zirngibl, Corporate Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Finisar began the second half of the day exploring the cross-over from pluggable modules to co-packaged optics, the changes this will cause, and what this will mean for the industry.This year’s carefully selected Market Focus speakers captivated the audiences with a unique and expert analysis of the topics. For the first time this year at ECOC, New Markets were put under the spotlight

as Verizon delivered a first-of-a kind presentation on how to detect vehicle speed, density and transport conditions using deployed fibre carrying high-speed data transmission. Verizon speaker, Glenn Wellbrock, cited that the use of fibre networks could potentially double the values of a carrier’s fibre assets to provide a significant environmental monitoring system to serve different applications. Also featured was Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi, Vice President, Strategic Marketing at II-VI Inc. Covering innovations in Photonics and current trends and opportunities for the latest innovations, Parthasarathi addressed transformational megatrends as well as looking in depth at the opportunities and challenges they represent.

Autonomous driving also featured on the agenda when Dr Pauline Rigby, consultant, LightCounting Market Research took to the stage. Turning the talk towards demand for lasers for 3D sensing, Rigby delivered comment on recent developments such as the use of facial recognition in smartphone technology, a shift that Rigby highlights as a turning point in the market. Rigby gave the packed auditorium her predictions for the future as she presented the latest reports on lasers use in automotive lidar.The final afternoon’s Market Focus topics had the crowds engaged again, as Robert Blum director of Strategic Marketing and New Business for Intel Silicon Photonics Products Division stepped up to present. Blum delved deep into sensing, outlining

As a presenter at Market Focus, it’s always a great

opportunity to present our vision on topics that are

important to us. Sitting in the audience, we get to

hear what our peers and fellow ecosystems see as

important trends and what their perspective is.Thomas Liljeberg, GM Photonic Integration, Intel Corporation.

The popularity of the Market Focus sessions was evidenced by the number of people that couldn’t get in.

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26INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020 www.opticalconnectionsnews.com

recent deployments in both consumer and automotive markets. Corning speaker, Market and Technology Development Manager, Sergei Makovejs, asked whether multi-core fiber (MCF) makes sense as he reflected on the last available frontiers for transmission capacity increase. Makoveis pondered whether MCF offers a viable capacity increase pathway, examining the most favourable conditions, as well as taking a reflective look at the MCF ecosystem as a whole and assessing its advantages and challenges.Dark Fibre grabbed the Market Focus spotlight during the final afternoon with a well-attended session sparking discussion around the need for cost-effective distributing sensing capability to identify malicious events to trigger preventative actions within the networks. As one of the earliest companies to deploy Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), Optasense Ltd. speaker, Product Line Manager, Andrew Hall, gave a fascinating overview of real-world application examples as well as highlighting the latest advances in the technology. Telefonica speaker, Juan Pedro Fernandez Palacios, used his session to cover how disaggregation is changing the way to architect and operate networks. Palacios put forward Telefonica’s take on the evolution of its disaggregation approach for optical networks.

Bringing the 2019 Market Focus to a close were ECOC exhibitors, Lumentum and VPIphotonics, who covered topics such as growth in optical networks and challenges in system design and modelling considerations. In addition, VPIphotonics speaker, general manager, Andre Richter

gave his take on viable solution approaches as the latest results were presented.

Reflecting on this year’s Market Focus, Dr. Stephan Neidlinger, ECOC Advisory Committee member said: “It has been amazing once again. The scope of topics is being extended and it is no longer just telco focused but looking more towards alternative markets.”

ECOC 2020Given the success of ECOC 2019 and the growth and popularity of the expo in previous years, ECOC 2020 will be bigger and better than ever. Situated in its original venue at the Brussels Expo on 21st – 23rd September, the 25th ECOC exhibition will bring together over 6,000 decision makers and more than 300 international exhibitors from around the world, including manufacturers, suppliers and service providers, with major players such as Ciena and Corning taking booths at the event. ECOC 2020 will feature interactive displays and seminars, with live demonstrations and free training sessions in the FTTx Village, covering fusion splicing and fibre preparation tools. As ever, the extremely popular Market Focus theatre will include thought-provoking presentations from some of the most innovative and forward-thinking companies working in optics today discussing the key issues facing the market. By the start of the new year, over half of booths had been booked, so it pays to get in early to be sure of a place at the industry’s premiere European event. You can view the 2020 prospectus for all the information you need about exhibiting at the ECOC Exhibition here. See you there!

Every year we are glad

to be here to launch

our new products,

and this year the main

trend is on high-speed

signals, so it’s the

perfect conditions

for us to launch our

products. All our key

customers are coming

here for the purpose of

seeing them.Alessandro Messina, marketing and

business development director at Anritsu.

Standing room only at Market Focus

CreditsAll ECOC images by Antonio Manuelwww.antoniomanuel.com

Video interviews by Brian Dolby, ECOC TV

ECOC 2019

27www.opticalconnectionsnews.com INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

With 4,297 attendees from 91 countries, the theme for 2019 was ‘separate fact from fiction’ as the event offered

the chance to take a deep dive into the technologies that are grabbing industry headlines, such as 5G, FWA, PON, AI, smart home, industrial IoT, and get a pragmatic view of how these technologies are impacting networks today. Understandably, 5G had a particularly prominent place at the Broadband World Forum, with one of the main keynote speakers, Gerry McQuade, CEO at BT Enterprise, using his presentation to discuss the 5G vertical use cases and monetisation. McQuade’s keynote can be seen in full here.

Stefaan Vanhastel, CTO of fixed networks at Nokia spoke about the importance of fixed-line broadband in relation to 5G to Ovum principal Julie Kunstler. Vanhastel said, “I would say wireline broadband is more relevant than ever in the 5G world. There are three areas where 5G and fixed access networks can compliment each other. The first one is that you can obviously use 5G to deliver a fixed wireless access service, next to fibre, DSL or cable. Of course, you’re going to have to decide which is the best of those three in any given situation. The second way that fibre, fixed access and 5G complement each other is in mobile transport. At some point we are going to be looking at massive numbers of small cells in every street and every building and we will need to connect those small cells using a fibre network that’s already in place.” He added that if FTTH is already in place, it will not be necessary to build a new network, meaning the cost and

speed at which 5G can be deployed will be significantly reduced. He concluded, “The third way fixed access and 5G can be complementary is that in a 5G world, consumers are going to expect a 5G service wherever they are.” The solution used for 5G access would, he explained, depend on a number of factors such as the terrain and the availability of spectrum. The full interview can be seen here.

Other keynotes included Babak Fouladi, chief technology & digital officer at KPN, who explored the journey to becoming a digital operator; Lise Fuhr, director general at ETNO, who discussed the impact of new European Parliament legislature on Very High Capacity Networks and Benoit Joly, chief sales & marketing officer - Services, Renault, who debated automotive driving as the future of connectivity

BBWF 2019 also hosted 3 expert workshops, including an ONF workshop on transforming the operator edge with curated open source networking; a 5G BASe workshop, exploring the reality of a 5G world for both consumers and service providers as well as the role of fixed in enabling these services and the Connected Home BASe workshop, delivering a market status update on the impact of consumer demands, partnering for OTT, architecture enablements and redefining Wi-Fi performance with T-398.Another major feature of BBWF 2019 was the Free Stage, which was open to all visitors. Attendees could learn about operator use cases from the likes of Telefónica España, Deutsche Telekom and PT Telkom Akses Indonesia. Also onoffer was the Stakeholder Gathering, which was joined by Match Maker Ventures, The Walt Disney Company, Elisa, UpRamp,

CableLabs US and Veon. A presentation from Barcelona City Council looked at 5G testbed deployment and conclusions drawn based on the city’s urbanistic model. There was also lively discussion during the panel discussion on inclusion, up-skilling and diversity in the broadband industry, joined by European Commission, Virgin Media, Digital Innovation Forum, Doqdrive and Tungsram Group, and finally, there was a presentation from Google Fibre’s Senior Architect & IEEEP9OT.3CS chair, Claudio DeSanti, exploring enabling broadband access for all with super PON.

Highlights of the last day included a keynote from Rahul Vijay, global head of connectivity at Uber who discussed connectivity as a competitive advantage; Buzzword Bingo: Cutting through AI, Machine Learning, IA to the solutions beyond, joined by Rogers and MyRepublic and a presentation hosted by Massimo Bertolotti, Broadband CTO at Sky Italia, discussing how to bring intelligent innovation to telco services.

The expo also features four content streams covering fixed wireless access, 5G & mobile broadband, next generation networks, connected life and intelligent networks, along with a discussion panel on how to improve opportunities for women in the communications industry, the Start-Up Showcase and, of course the BBWF 2019 awards, the presentation ceremony for which was, of course, fully booked well in advance.

BBWF 2020 is scheduled to take place on 13th – 15th October 2020 at the Rai Centre, Amsterdam. More information can be found at https://tmt.knect365.com/bbwf

With broadband at the top of operators’ and vendors’ agendas alike, BBWF 2019 came at a very

opportune time. Demands for ever-greater data throughput, the onset of 5G and developments in

areas such as autonomous vehicles, all provided food for thought and discussion at the event in

the Rai Centre, Amsterdam, last October.

BROADBAND WORLD FORUM 2019

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28INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020 www.opticalconnectionsnews.com

Swiss Connectivity company HUBER+SUHNER has launched a so called “MPO Knowledge sharing programme”.

Multifiber push-on (MPO) connectors are increasingly popular in the data center market because they provide many advantages to high-speed networks. They are used to connect the

fastest links delivering most sensitive services and data to customers. More and more Telecom operators are also reconfiguring their central offices into data centers and using MPO connectivity they can connect with up to 24 fibers. Although this interface is well-known, there is still a great demand on the market for more knowledge on its use.

HUBER+SUHNER has therefore created the “MPO knowledge sharing programme” with different videos showing themes

like MPO connector, adapter, gender and

polarity. The programme will be expanded regularly. Watch the programme videos here or go to our webpage https://hubersuhner.com to find out more.

HellermannTyton provides a complete end to end range of Fibre to the X (FTTX) solutions, delivering flexible fibre connectivity across every stage of the last mile network.

The comprehensive range of street cabinets, fibre splice closures, MDU enclosures, customer connection points and wall outlets, delivering fibre to the home in both underground or over-ground (aerial) applications.

The FTTX last mile product range from HellermannTyton offers quality connectivity at every stage of the network from the central office all the way to the inside of a property where the fibre connects to a router. Starting with a street cabinet or the larger UFC fibre splice closure where the fibre cables are at their highest

density, they are then routed along the network to the next phase of connectivity.

There is no set design for a fibre network which means different operators have very different fibre requirements at the various stages of the network. HellermannTyton have committed a large

amount of research and resource into developing a range of products that offer the best fibre connectivity at each of these stages.

Inside the building there is the new MDU series which currently offers 3 different enclosures; the S5 being the largest presenting up to 432

managed fibre splices, down to the S1 with 8 dedicated customer fibre connections. Looking at individual properties you then have the CCE or the CCP which takes the fibre from outside the property or house inside and connecting to the FWO which then takes the fibre to the router or other active hardware.

Outside the building there is also a range of IP rated enclosures that manage fibre from the street to the property. The AFN offers up to 24 connectorised fibres and the FFE a slightly small enclosure offers 8 fibre connections.

For more information on any of these products please come and see HellermannTyton at FTTH Berlin 2020 or visit www.htdata.co.uk

Significantly enhance your speed of installation with plug-and-play philosophy.

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FACT™ is a versatile, end-to-end, fully front-accessible ODF solution that incorporates termination,

splicing, and storage demands. The FACT™ ODF system enables faster and easier installation in a high-

density environment. The tool-less system approach and the high level of modularity guarantee an easy migration path towards new connectivity platforms and expansion of existing central offices and data centers.• The FACT system enables

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and reduced costs• Plug-and-play, high usable

density fiber connectivity solution

• Fiber and cable technology independent—increases design flexibility

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• Stationary fiber principle during tray manipulations to reduce stress on the fiber

• FiberGuide® compatible for organized cable routing beyond the ODF

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Manage your high-density fiber network with FACT™

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For a common understanding – MPO knowledge sharing

PRODUCT NEWS

29www.opticalconnectionsnews.com INDUSTRY FOCUS 2019/2020

Albis Optoelectronics is a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of high-speed photodiodes. Since more than 15 years, the company has offered the broadest portfolio of Telcordia qualified InP and GaAs photodiodes for datacom and telecom applications in the industry.

At the upcoming Photonics West Exhibition in San Francisco, Albis will present its new highly sensitive APD chip APD05C1. This linear mode APD is optimized for long-wavelength, eye safe LiDAR applications and comes

with low dark current and low excess noise. Thanks to the low device capacitance, the APD can be operated in pulsed time-of-flight (TOF) systems as well as offers the required bandwidth and linearity to pursue formats such as frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW).

The APD operates in the wavelength range from 990nm up to 1650nm and has an exceptionally high responsivity of 1.1 A/W. The backside substrate acts as an integrated sunlight filter, absorbing parasitic signals in the visible spectrum without increasing

noise. The integrated backside lens focuses the incoming photons on the topside detecting area enabling higher fill factor and coupling efficiency.

For more information visit www.albisopto.com or contact sales@albisopto.com

Visit us at Photonics West - Booth 4383!

Albis Optoelectronics Extends Portfolio of Photodiodes for Long-Wavelength LiDAR

Getting to grips with the 18th Edition Wiring Regulations: new Firefly clip range from SWA offers ideal solution for fibre optic cabling.

SWA’s ingenious Firefly Push Grip Clips are fast proving popular as the perfect solution for compliance with new BS7671 regulations prohibiting the use of plastic clips or glues in fibre optic cable installations.

Offering a super-strong substrate grip, the design-engineered white-finish steel clips have a melting point above 1300ºC, ensuring fibre optic and other small cables

are not left unsupported dangerously after a fire.

SWA Marketing Manager

Colin Fletcher said: “Our single-component Firefly Push Grip Clips are easy to

fit and practically invisible once installed, so it is no surprise they have rapidly won an enthusiastic welcome from major UK providers of broadband fibre.”

Available in two sizes to support 0.9mm and 2.0mm cables, the clips come in a smooth safe finish to prevent cable damage and are suitable for fixing in concrete, brick or wood. Once a hole has been drilled, the clips are fitted in seconds using just finger pressure or with the optional plastic fitting tool.Contact: sales@swaonline.co.uk

Fire Clips for Fibre Optic Cables

Fujikura has launched the 90S fusion splicer with a range of new features designed to enable the user to work faster and with higher precision. The company says that overall splice process time has been significantly reduced in comparison to 70S+, launched at ECOC back in 2017. This, it says, has been achieved with a combination of improvements to the reaction time of the automated wind protectors and automated heater,

new fibre retention clamps, improved universal sheath clamps and a redesigned internal structure that matches the protection sleeve position to the fusion splice point which enables splicing to be achieved without the need of the user to touch the 90S once the process has started.

The improvement in speed has been achieved whilst also improving the precision of the 90S, utilising cutting edge true core alignment technology

combined with advanced image processing to ensure the most precise and repeatable splice ever.

The 90S builds on Fujikura’s Active Blade Management Technology which allows two CT50 cleavers to be connected simultaneously. Active Blade Management is a way of wirelessly connecting the splicer to the optical

fibre cleaver. By continually monitoring the cleaver performance and automatically prompting the user at the optimum point to rotate the blade the total cost of ownership will be dramatically reduced.

Fujikura launches 90S core alignment fusion splicer

PRODUCT NEWS

SAVE THE DATE21 – 23 SEPTEMBERBRUSSELS, BELGIUM

ECOC EXHIBITION 2020

FIND OUT MORE AT:www.ecocexhibiti on.com

ECOC2020-Save-the-Date-Ad-Final-210x297.indd 1 02/08/2019 09:48:53